End of Season 5

I haven't posted in a while. It's the end of Season 5. This past weekend, I went a bad losing streak. I was 3-13. One of the games, my opponent just left. I had one legitimate win, and one where I beat a failed cannon rush. It was pathetic. I lost to a 6-pool, and I also lost to a proxy gateway build. The whole weekend was frustrating. My girlfriend said that it was because work was so hectic (and as a result, I've been getting about 4 hours of sleep a night on average) but to be honest, I think I hit a wall. I could tell that my opponents had crisper builds, and just more units when they'd come to attack. I was starting to be outclassed.

Last night, I went online to try and get a few games in and try and get promoted to Gold division before the ladder lock. The games weren't out of the ordinary. I was starting to see a lot more bronze players, though, but I figured in part it was due to my losing streak from the weekend. After my third loss in a row, I played against a bronze-level Terran opponent. I played random, and happened to be Protoss that game.

I tried to scout his base after I started warping in my gateway, only to be denied by him right when I got to his ramp. He built a supply depot and walled off before I could get the probe inside his base. "Noob," he messaged me. I kept with my build, adding a couple gateways and a robotics factor. I had a couple probes at the Xel' Naga watch towers in the middle of the map. I could see that he was pushing out, right as I started mining from my expansion. I was in trouble. He had a complement of tanks, marines, and a banshee. There were also some SCVs at the front of his army. I retreated my probes to my main base, tried to throw down a couple of cannons, and started warping in more units. I also just finished colossus tech, but my single colossus looked naked against his army. I probably should have had more sentries. He pushed up my ramp, and then his raven launched a point-defense drone. The drone was absorbing the lasers from my stalkers. I wasn't able to target his banshees! I was in trouble. I retreated to my nexus and started warping in a couple of cannons. I did enough damage with my zealots that he retreated to gather reinforcements. He started a second attack. My second colossus had warped in, so the fight was a little more fair. I was having trouble holding off those banshees, though. He was able to come up the ramp and took out one of the pylons that powered the robotics factory. After that, he took out another pylon that powered the gateways. Again I pushed him back. I warped in a pylon, as well as more gateways at the rear of my base. I wasn't spending my money fast enough.

When he attacked the next time, it mopped of the rest of my forces. I had lost. "Noob," he messaged again. When I saw the score screen, he was only a bronze level player. I congratulated him for winning, but I said that it didn't amount to much. He beat a silver player, so what? On top of that, he was still a bronze level player. It didn't matter.

When I started another game, he messaged me that he wanted a rematch. I was still playing, so I told him I would later. I lost sort of quickly in an unremarkable TvT game. We created a party and rematched - this time with his real account. He was diamond level. (I sort of figured, since he was playing so well, that he was a higher level player.) I couldn't figure out why he'd want to have a smurf account, though. It turned out that he was using a friend's account while to try and help him get promoted to silver divsion before the ladder locked at midnight.

We played again, and, as expected, he beat me. However, instead of trash talking, he was wondering why I played random. He also said that I was the toughest game that he had played that night. (I was surprised, since I thought he had rolled over me, but apparently it was closer than I had thought.) He also offerred to give me tips on how to play Terran, but only if I promised to stop playing random. I told him that I'd play next season as Terran.

We then spend the next hour and a half to learn builds. He showed me the 1/1/1 build, where you build a barracks, factory, and a starport as you build an army. Apparently, I was doing it wrong. I was building the barracks before I built a refinery. I was also adding the add-on buildings and researching upgrades instead of pushing out more units. When he helped me tweak the build, I was actually decent at it after a try or two. I did have to write down the timings on a piece of paper, though. I don't have them memorized yet.

He also showed me a two-factory build that pumps out hellions, for use against Zerg opponents. After seeing that build, I could tell that it could get in trouble with roaches or mutalisks. However, since the attack hits around the 7:30 mark, it's unlikely that mutalisks would be in any number before the attack.

After I had seen both builds, I tried them out on the ladder. I wasn't playing random anymore - I was playing as Terran. The two-factory build rolled over my Zerg opponents - most of them didn't know what hit them. There was a speedling/baneling attack that I easily held off. He attempted to hold off my counterattack by building roaches and blocking his ramp with queens, but I was able to kill the queens before his spine crawlers finsihed. He resigned right afterward. I played another Zerg opponent, but it wasn't a good test of the build - he didn't morph any buildings until he had 600 minerals, and he only built one zergling during the game.

I had a lot more problems with the 1/1/1 build. My new "coach" had warned me that a 4-gate would destroy this build, and I had to scout it out. I did scout it out, but I don't think I responded correctly. The attack came around 7:30, but I only had a few marines and a hellion. When he took out my supply depot, it was game over. The wall crumbled, and his army marched in and made short work of my base. My second game, against a Terran opponent, the 1/1/1 build seemed to fare much better. I held off an attack with marines and marauders at my base, and then my counterattack rolled over his forces and went into his base. I won. The third game, against a Protoss opponent, I was again crushed by the 4-gate. Something was wrong with my build. When I played a Terran opponent next, the 1/1/1 build worked fine. I had three banshees, and managed to pick off a large number of SCVs before he was able to bring his marines back to his orbital command to protect them. Since I saw he had mostly marines and hellions, I switched the tech at my base. I started building marauders and researched siege tech for my siege tanks. By the time he attacked my base, I was well-defended. I won. I think this is the strength of the build - it's flexible when you know what your opponent's army composition.

I still had no idea what to do with the 1/1/1 build against the Protoss. I decided that building a bunker by my ramp might be a good way to hold off an attack. I built two of them by my ramp. They held, but the zealots managed to take out a supply depot and one of the bunkers before I was able to repel the attack. I think, in this case, the ramp was too far from my command center, so I couldn't get the SCVs to the ramp in time to repair the bunkers. It probably would have helped to scout more to see the attack coming. (I did put down the bunkers as soon as he had killed off my scouting SCV, since I had a pretty good idea that an attack was coming.) After I held off the second attack. it wasn't too hard to march to his base and mop up the remnants of his army. I started experimenting with my bunker placement (closer to the SCVs helps). My "coach" also said that I really only needed one bunker. It seemed to work out. My 1/1/1 build works, but I don't think it's tight enough, yet.

Even so, after I started playing Terrran and concentrating on one build, I ended up 6-2. I'm still under .500 because of the losing streak, but these games with the new builds were definitely easier and quicker than my games in the past. My macro also seems to have improved with these builds. It'll be an interesting week. I can't get promoted to Gold division since the ladder's locked, but I think in this coming week, I'll be able to refine these builds and be able to start off next season with a winning streak.